Addressing the Unmet Educational Needs of Children and Youth in the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems

Children and youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, like all children, deserve a quality education that allows them to develop the skills and competencies necessary for them to become productive adults. Regrettably, this is infrequently the case. Many of these children and youth leave school without a regular diploma, and still others graduate without the academic skills and social-emotional competencies that constitute twenty-first century learning skills. In commissioning this paper, the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform (CJJR) at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute has recognized these poor outcomes and the need for greater cross-system collaboration to correct these negative outcomes.